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Canucks get close, but not close enough, as they fall to the Sens in Ottawa |
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The playoff hopes of the Vancouver Canucks were set back on Monday, when they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Ottawa Senators as the four-game series shifted east to Ontario.
The margin of victory was slim. The Senators outshot Vancouver 27-26, and I guess you could argue that one extra shot was the winning goal by Drake Batherson. It came midway through the second period, when the Canucks got hemmed their own zone without completing a line change.
J.T. Miller got off the ice, swapping with Brandon Sutter, who was on for 1:08 before Batherson scored. But Brock Boeser was on for 1:31 and Jimmy Vesey, Nate Schmidt and Alex Edler were all at 1:37.
That was pretty much the end of the rope for Vesey, who was on the ice for both goals against. He played just two more shifts in the game as Travis Green moved Tyler Motte up to play with Boeser and Miller in the second half of the third period.
Considering he was scratched on Saturday night, and that he was one of the few players who didn't appear on the Canucks' Covid list, Vesey should have been fresh and impactful on Monday night. He ended up being a liability instead of an asset.
With no points and a minus-five during his eight games with the Canucks, I wonder how much more we'll see him over the rest of this season.
On a more positive note, I thought Jake Virtanen had one of his best games in a long time on Monday night. A glance at the box score doesn't exactly support my theory; he played a pretty typical 11:39 and finished with no shot attempts.
But I thought he made a good decision to try to spark his team when he stepped up to fight Ryan Dzingel right after Ottawa's first goal.
And I thought he looked effective in front of Marcus Hogberg's net when the Canucks pulled Braden Holtby as they tried to find the equalizer in the final minutes of regulation.
Unlike Vesey, Virtanen's ice time increased as the game went on. More than half of it came in the third period, including the final 1:41.
I feel like it's been awhile since Travis Green showed that kind of trust in Virtanen. And even though he has just one goal in his last 15 games, I can understand why Green was hoping he might be able to tap into some Shotgun Jake magic to help his team skate away with at least one point on Monday night.
Bigger picture, I worry that those late-game pushes — and playing from behind in general — will be the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that will keep the Canucks from being able to catch the Habs. Tyler Myers had a relatively light night at 18:18, but Quinn Hughes logged another 25:14. And up front, Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson both eclipsed the 20-minute mark.
Through the five games since the return, Myers and Quinn are both averaging just under 24 minutes a game while Miller, Horvat and Boeser are the three forwards that are averaging over 20 minutes.
I understand why Travis Green leans on his top players when he's playing to win. And I think his use of Motte and Virtanen on Monday shows that he's doing his best to try to share the load as much as possible. But if this workload continues on this schedule, they're going to run out of gas or, worse, get injured.
Speaking of injuries, here's hoping it's nothing serious for Thatcher Demko, who hurt himself during Monday's morning skate in Ottawa. It's believed he won't be out long, but of course the injury comes at the worst possible time — one day after the Canucks finally decided to send Mikey DiPietro down to Utica to get him some playing time.
I shook my head as soon as I heard that announcement on Sunday, amazed that the organization could make that decision one day after they watched the Senators lose two netminders to injury in one game and have to put Artem Anisimov into goalie gear.
Admittedly, it's a rare year where the Canucks had been healthy in goal all season. And that's why DiPietro was stuck in taxi squad purgatory. But again, you're coming into this tough, compressed schedule, with two goalies who clearly had their struggles while they were sick with Covid. How is this the time that you assume they'll be fine and DiPietro won't be needed?
I know there have been cries for awhile to make sure DiPietro gets some work. But when every point gained is going to be a battle, the timing seemed crazy to me — even in the brief window before Demko went down.
The only way I can rationalize it is by hoping that, since Ian Clark has now had a couple of weeks to work with next-in-line Arturs Silovs, that Clark thinks Silovs would be ready to handle game action if circumstances required that he take the net.
I like his story. And I know he's already had some sparkling moments in his career, sometimes in less-than-ideal circumstances. And hey, the Florida Panthers went ahead and threw their 20-year-old prospect, Spencer Knight, into his first NHL game last week — and he got a win.
I'm not sure I *want* Silovs to get a start in one of these upcoming back-to-back games, in Ottawa on Wednesday and Toronto on Thursday. But if Demko's not ready, I might be more tempted to try that, than to lean too heavily on Braden Holtby.
Side note: as the World U18 Championship got underway on Monday in Texas, I learned that Team USA has a 17-year-old draft-eligible goaltender named Braden Holt. He's property of the WHL's Everett Silvertips, but doesn't seem to be particularly highly regarded prospect. I'm hoping for a big tournament from him, just to see how much confusion he can generate at the draft and beyond...
USA's opening game was a barnburner, where they took a 5-1 lead over team Russia by the early stages of the second period before ultimately falling 7-6 in overtime.
Most of the games in the preliminary round are on HockeyTV, which requires a subscription. But Team Canada debuts Tuesday against Sweden, at 6 p.m. PT on TSN.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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